CONTACT: PETER ALEXANDER
100 Old Public Library
Iowa City IA 52242
(319) 384-0072; fax (319) 384-0024
e-mail: peter-alexander@uiowa.edu

Release: Nov. 5, 1999

UI CAMPUS NOTES -- IOWA CENTER FOR THE ARTS

PERSPECTIVES, NOV. 17 -- Kathleen A. Edwards, curator of prints, drawings and photographs at the University of Iowa Museum of Art, will present a slide lecture previewing the exhibition "American Print Workshops" at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 17 in the museum, followed by a public reception to recognize the Print and Drawing Study Club.

The lecture will be a special evening installment of the weekly Perspectives series held Wednesdays at the museum, and the final event in that series for this fall. Admission is free to both the museum and the Perspectives events.

The slide lecture will be given as a preview to the exhibition "From Hayter to Pettibon: American Workshop Prints." This exhibition, originally slated to run from Nov. 13 through Jan. 9, 2000, has had its opening date postponed to Friday, Feb. 4, 2000.

Edwards' slide lecture will trace the development and growth of the published print in the United States. No longer a confined technical specialization, printmaking is now standard practice for most established artists.

"Not only do the best artists of our time make prints," says Edwards, "but some of the best art works of our time are prints."

The Print and Drawing Study Club, through contributions of its members, recently purchased for the museum's permanent collection "Al Dolo," a rare second state of an etching by Canaletto. The gift will recognize the club's 25th anniversary.

The UI Museum of Art is located at North Riverside Drive in Iowa City. Public metered parking is available in UI parking lots across from the museum on Riverside Drive and just north of the museum.

M.C. Ginsberg Objects of Art, Inc. of Iowa City is the corporate sponsor for the 1999-2000 Perspectives series at the UI Museum of Art through the University of Iowa Foundation.

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HAUGERUD READS NOV. 18 -- Neil Haugerud, who was sheriff of Fillmore County in Minnesota in the 1960s, will read from his book "Jailhouse Stories: Memories of a Small-Town Sheriff," at
8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18 at the Prairie Lights bookstore, 15 S. Dubuque St. in downtown Iowa City.

The reading -- part of the "Live From Prairie Lights" series originating live on the University of Iowa radio station WSUI, 910 AM -- is free and open to the public.

Garrison Keillor writes, "Neil Haugerud is a man of prodigious memory and elegant style, and his 'Jailhouse Stories' is worth anyone's time . . . If Chekhov had been sheriff of Fillmore County, he would have written it all down, too, like this." Tami Hoag, author of "Ashes to Ashes," describes the book as "funny, touching, and wonderfully odd . . . This is truly what small-town life in the Midwest is all about."

Haugerud was sheriff of Fillmore County from 1959 to 1967 and a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977. He lives in Preston, Minn., in Fillmore County, where he works as a mediator and consultant in conflict management.

For more information on the "Live From Prairie Lights" readings, visit the series' web page at http://www.prairielights.com/livefromplights.htm

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"THE MERLENE STORY" Nov. 18-20 -- University Theatres will present a workshop production of "The Chew Street Cycle, Part I: The Merlene Story," a farcical comedy by Margaret Baldwin, at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 18-20 in Theatre B of the University of Iowa Theatre Building.

Baldwin, who has had several plays produced by University Theatres, is in her final year at the Iowa Playwrights Workshop.

"The Chew Street Cycle" is a series of plays modeled after the structure of the medieval mystery plays, cycles of plays that dramatized the history of the world according to the Christian beliefs of the times, from Creation to Judgment Day.

"The Merlene Story" focuses on Merlene, a middle-aged woman who struggles to find her own life amidst a parade of suitors, relatives, nemeses and second-hand furnishings. Merlene's fantasy and real worlds begin to collide, forcing her to confront the possibility of leaving the safe confines of her apartment.

"It's a play about loneliness, sex, mini-fridges and Raisinettes," director and set designer Bret Gothe said.

Other contributors to the production include dramaturg Kristin Gandrow, lighting designer Kirsten Johnson, sound designer Matt Butler, and Don Schneider, who worked on set construction.

Admission to "The Chew Street Cycle, Part I: The Merlene Story" will be $1 at the door.

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DECHANT READS NOV. 19 -- Carol DeChant will read from "Mama's Enchanted Supper," a new collection of family-centered stories about life in small-town Iowa, at 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19 at the Prairie Lights Bookstore, 15 S. Dubuque St. in downtown Iowa City.

The reading -- part of the "Live From Prairie Lights" series originating live on the University of Iowa radio station WSUI, 910 AM -- is free and open to the public.

Booklist describes "Mama's Enchanted Supper" as "an engaging assortment of heartwarming and heartrending stories culled from six generations of [Dechant's] family's history." Antoinette Bosco, author of "Coincidences," writes, "Don't confuse the enchantment of the title with fairy tale; this book makes you confront rock-solid, blessed mystery!"

Geneva Overholser, former editor of the Des Moines Register and a syndicated columnist in the Washington Post Writers Group, concludes, "This is a lovely book, at once smart and soulful, funny and full of insight. Amid all our hand-wringing over the loss of what used to be, it's delightful to be reminded that we have among us today people like Carol DeChant and her richly varied and wonderful family of Iowans."

In "Mama's Enchanted Supper," DeChant explores the relationship between Biblical stories and the stories of her own family's history. She writes, "When I juxtapose my family's stories against scripture, I find cycles of mystery and miracles, of yearning to strike out for new territory and a persistent longing for home; of hoping and grieving . . . "

For more information on the "Live From Prairie Lights" readings, visit the series' web page at http://www.prairielights.com/livefromplights.htm

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HUYLER READS NOV. 22 -- Frank Huyler, an emergency room doctor and poet, will read from his first book, "The Blood of Strangers: Stories from Emergency Medicine," at 8 p.m. Monday, Nov. 22 at the Prairie Lights Bookstore, 15 S. Dubuque St. in downtown Iowa City.

The reading -- part of the "Live From Prairie Lights" series originating live on the University of Iowa radio station WSUI, 910 AM -- is free and open to the public.

The critic of The New Yorker wrote, "The author of these doctor stories is an emergency room physician as well as a poet, and his work shows the economy and sharp attention that both jobs demand." A Publishers Weekly review describes the book as a "haunting, exquisitely-observed collection of medical vignettes. . . It marks Huyler as a writer to watch."

Huyler is an emergency room physician in Albuquerque, N.M. He is a graduate of Williams College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His poetry has appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, the Georgia Review and Poetry.

For more information on the "Live From Prairie Lights" readings, visit the series' web page at http://www.prairielights.com/livefromplights.htm